Pearce v. Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Co.

HUSKINS, Justice.

The dispositive question on this appeal is whether statements allegedly made to plaintiff by defendant’s agent R. W. Rochelle, were properly admissible into evidence as the admissions of Southern Bell.

In North Carolina there are two grounds upon which the statement of an agent to a third party will be admitted into evidence as the admission of the principal. See generally, 2 Stansbury, North Carolina Evidence, § 169 (Brandis rev. 1973). First, such statement is admissible if it is spoken within the scope of an agent’s authority to speak for his principal. Norburn v. Mackie,…